Book 6
But since I have but one maiden to plan for and so cannot please all of you, to those of you whose suit is rejected I make a gift of a talent of silver to each, for his desire to take a wife from my house and for his sojourn away from his home; and to Megacles son of Alcmeon do I betroth my daughter Agariste, by the laws of the Athenians.” Megacles accepted the betrothal, and Cleisthenes brought the marriage to pass.
Such is the tale of the choice among the suitors; and thus the fame of the Alcmeonidae resounded throughout Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas. From this marriage was born that Cleisthenes, named after his mother's father from Sikyon [22.725,37.9833] (Perseus)Sicyon, who gave the Athenians their tribes and their democracy;
he and Hippocrates were born to Megacles; Hippocrates was father of another Megacles and another Agariste, called after Agariste who was Cleisthenes' daughter. She was married to Xanthippus son of Ariphron, and when she was pregnant she saw in her sleep a vision in which she thought she gave birth to a lion. In a few days she bore Xanthippus a son, Pericles.
After the Persian disaster at Marathon, the reputation of Miltiades, already great at Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens, very much increased. He asked the Athenians for seventy ships, an army, and money, not revealing against what country he would lead them, but saying that he would make them rich if they followed him; he would bring them to a country from which they could easily carry away an abundance of gold; so he said when he asked for the ships. The Athenians were induced by these promises and granted his request.
Miltiades took his army and sailed for +Nisos Paros [25.2,37.1] (island), Cyclades, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Paros, on the pretext that the Parians had brought this on themselves by first sending triremes with the Persian fleet to Marathon. Such was the pretext of his argument, but he had a grudge against the Parians because Lysagoras son of Tisias, a man of Parian descent, had slandered him to Hydarnes the Persian.
When he reached his voyage's destination, Miltiades with his army drove the Parians inside their walls and besieged them; he sent in a herald and demanded a hundred talents, saying that if they did not give it to him, his army would not return home before it had stormed their city.
The Parians had no intention of giving Miltiades any money at all, and they contrived how to defend their city. They did this by building their wall at night to double its former height where it was most assailable, and also by other devices.
All the Greeks tell the same story up to this point; after this the Parians themselves say that the following happened: as Miltiades was in a quandary, a captive woman named Timo, Parian by birth and an under-priestess of the goddesses of the dead, came to talk with him.
Coming before Miltiades, she advised him, if taking +Nisos Paros [25.2,37.1] (island), Cyclades, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Paros was very important to him, to do whatever she suggested. Then, following her advice, he passed through to the hill in front of the city and jumped over the fence of the precinct of Demeter the Lawgiver, since he was unable to open the door. After leaping over, he went to the shrine, whether to move something that should not be moved, or with some other intention. When he was right at the doors, he was immediately seized with panic and hurried back by the same route; leaping down from the wall he twisted his thigh, but some say he hit his knee.
So Miltiades sailed back home in a sorry condition, neither bringing money for the Athenians nor having won +Nisos Paros [25.2,37.1] (island), Cyclades, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Paros; he had besieged the town for twenty-six days and ravaged the island.
The Parians learned that Timo the under-priestess of the goddesses had been Miltiades' guide and desired to punish her for this. Since they now had respite from the siege, they sent messengers to Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi to ask if they should put the under-priestess to death for guiding their enemies to the capture of her native country, and for revealing to Miltiades the rites that no male should know.
But the Pythian priestess forbade them, saying that Timo was not responsible: Miltiades was doomed to make a bad end, and an apparition had led him in these evils.
Such was the priestess' reply to the Parians. The Athenians had much to say about Miltiades on his return from +Nisos Paros [25.2,37.1] (island), Cyclades, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Paros, especially Xanthippus son of Ariphron, who prosecuted Miltiades before the people for deceiving the Athenians and called for the death penalty.
Miltiades was present but could not speak in his own defense, since his thigh was festering; he was laid before the court on a couch, and his friends spoke for him, often mentioning the fight at Marathon and the conquest of +Lemnos [25.25,39.916] (island), Lesvos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Lemnos: how Miltiades had punished the Pelasgians and taken +Lemnos [25.25,39.916] (island), Lesvos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Lemnos, delivering it to the Athenians.
The people took his side as far as not condemning him to death, but they fined him fifty talents for his wrongdoing. Miltiades later died of gangrene and rot in his thigh, and the fifty talents were paid by his son Cimon.
Miltiades son of Cimon took possession of +Lemnos [25.25,39.916] (island), Lesvos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Lemnos in this way: When the Pelasgians The Pelasgians were driven into Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica by the Boeotian immigration, about sixty years after the Trojan war according to legend. were driven out of Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica by the Athenians, whether justly or unjustly I cannot say, beyond what is told; namely, that Hecataeus the son of Hegesandrus declares in his history that the act was unjust;
for when the Athenians saw the land under +Imittos [23.816,37.95] (inhabited place), Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Hymettus, formerly theirs, which they had given to the Pelasgians as a dwelling-place in reward for the wall that had once been built around the acropolis—when the Athenians saw how well this place was tilled which previously had been bad and worthless, they were envious and coveted the land, and so drove the Pelasgians out on this and no other pretext. But the Athenians themselves say that their reason for expelling the Pelasgians was just.
The Pelasgians set out from their settlement at the foot of +Imittos [23.816,37.95] (inhabited place), Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Hymettus and wronged the Athenians in this way: Neither the Athenians nor any other Hellenes had servants yet at that time, and their sons and daughters used to go to the Nine Wells S.E. of Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens, near the +Ilisos Potamos (brook), Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Ilissus. for water; and whenever they came, the Pelasgians maltreated them out of mere arrogance and pride. And this was not enough for them; finally they were caught in the act of planning to attack Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens.
The Athenians were much better men than the Pelasgians, since when they could have killed them, caught plotting as they were, they would not so do, but ordered them out of the country. The Pelasgians departed and took possession of +Lemnos [25.25,39.916] (island), Lesvos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Lemnos, besides other places. This is the Athenian story; the other is told by Hecataeus.
These Pelasgians dwelt at that time in +Lemnos [25.25,39.916] (island), Lesvos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Lemnos and desired vengeance on the Athenians. Since they well knew the time of the Athenian festivals, they acquired fifty-oared ships and set an ambush for the Athenian women celebrating the festival of Artemis at +Brauron [24.025,37.9167] (Perseus) Brauron. They seized many of the women, then sailed away with them and brought them to +Lemnos [25.25,39.916] (island), Lesvos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Lemnos to be their concubines.
These women bore more and more children, and they taught their sons the speech of Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica and Athenian manners. These boys would not mix with the sons of the Pelasgian women; if one of them was beaten by one of the others, they would all run to his aid and help each other; these boys even claimed to rule the others, and were much stronger.
When the Pelasgians perceived this, they took counsel together; it troubled them much in their deliberations to think what the boys would do when they grew to manhood, if they were resolved to help each other against the sons of the lawful wives and attempted to rule them already.
Thereupon the Pelasgians resolved to kill the sons of the Attic women; they did this, and then killed the boys' mothers also. From this deed and the earlier one which was done by the women when they killed their own husbands who were Thoas' companions, a “Lemnian crime” has been a proverb in Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas for any deed of cruelty.
But when the Pelasgians had murdered their own sons and women, their land brought forth no fruit, nor did their wives and their flocks and herds bear offspring as before. Crushed by hunger and childlessness, they sent to Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi to ask for some release from their present ills.
The Pythian priestess ordered them to pay the Athenians whatever penalty the Athenians themselves judged. The Pelasgians went to Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens and offered to pay the penalty for all their wrongdoing.
The Athenians set in their town-hall a couch adorned as finely as possible, and placed beside it a table covered with all manner of good things, then ordered the Pelasgians to deliver their land to them in the same condition.
The Pelasgians answered, “We will deliver it when a ship with a north wind accomplishes the voyage from your country to ours in one day”; they supposed that this was impossible, since Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica is far to the south of +Lemnos [25.25,39.916] (island), Lesvos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Lemnos.
At the time that was all. But a great many years later, when the Gelibolu Yarimadasi (peninsula), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaChersonese on the Canakkale Bogazi (strait), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Hellespont was made subject to Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens, Miltiades son of Cimon accomplished the voyage from Elaeus on the Gelibolu Yarimadasi (peninsula), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaChersonese to +Lemnos [25.25,39.916] (island), Lesvos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Lemnos with the Etesian North-east winds, blowing in July, August, and September. winds then constantly blowing; he proclaimed that the Pelasgians must leave their island, reminding them of the oracle which the Pelasgians thought would never be fulfilled.
The Hephaestians obeyed, but the Myrinaeans would not agree that the Gelibolu Yarimadasi (peninsula), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaChersonese was Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica and were besieged, until they too submitted. Thus did Miltiades and the Athenians take possession of +Lemnos [25.25,39.916] (island), Lesvos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Lemnos.